Abstract
OPPORTUNITIES for investigating, within narrow ecological limits, the natural occurrence of cancer in animals are not often available due to infrequency of disease, lack of diagnosis and environmental variation. A unique situation without these inadequacies has been observed at the San Diego Zoological Gardens. Since 1956 one grizzly bear (Ursus horribilis) and four sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) have been afflicted with carcinoma of the biliary tract and liver. These five bears were confined to the same grotto for long periods of their lives. This grotto, indicated as No. 5, is one of eight bear grottoes at the Zoo (Fig. 1). Since 1931 the only other bears to occupy this grotto were a male grizzly named ‘Alec’, which revealed no tumour on autopsy, and five cubs which died soon after birth. Consequently, five of the six mature bears housed in this grotto during the 31-year period (1931–62) have developed a similar tumour.
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DORN, C. Biliary and Hepatic Carcinomas in Bears at the San Diego Zoological Gardens. Nature 202, 513–514 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/202513a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/202513a0
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